CHAPTER XLVIII
WHILE THE CITY SLEPT
Daunt accompanied his chief that evening to a dinner at the Nobles'Club--a "stag," for conventional functions had been discontinued sincethe royal death had cast a pall over the stay of the Squadron. As theydrove thither a nearer shadow was over the Ambassador's spirits. Histhoughts would stray to Barbara and her misfortune, which seemed so deepand irreparable. He had eventually accepted his wife's diagnosis as toDaunt's _tendresse_, but he had a confidence that his Secretary ofEmbassy, though hard-hit, would bear no scars. He could not guess allthat lay beneath the brave domino Daunt was wearing.
The affair was a late one, with various native divertisements:top-spinners, painters whose exquisite brush-etchings, done in a fewseconds, were given as mementoes to the guests, and jugglers who,utterly without paraphernalia, caused live fowl to appear in impossibleplaces. Toward the close the Ambassador found himself seated beside theMinister of Marine.
"Very clever," he said, as a Chinese pheasant flew out of an invertedopera-hat. "I almost believe he could produce my missing dog if he wereproperly urged."
"Have you lost one?" asked the Admiral. "I'm sorry."
The Ambassador laughed. "It was really something of a relief," he said,and told the story of the Russian wolf-hound which had so curiouslydisappeared on the evening of Doctor Bersonin's call. "The oddest thingabout it," he ended, "is that, though the name of the Embassy was on hiscollar, nothing has been heard of him."
The two men chatted for some time on things in general, the conversationveering to the Squadron. The Ambassador thought the other seemedsomewhat distrait. At two the affair ended and the carriages drew up tothe windy porte-cochere. There was a confidential matter which theAmbassador wished to speak of with his host. He had mentioned it, but nofitting opportunity had occurred. At the door the Admiral recalled it,suggesting with a quizzical reference to the other's American fondnessfor late hours that, as his house was on the way, the Ambassador stopthere, while they had their talk over a cigar. The latter, therefore,departed in the Admiral's carriage, and Daunt drove alone to theEmbassy, directing the coachman to go in a half-hour for his chief.
In the past three days Daunt had fought a constant battle. Every featureof that night at Nikko was stamped indelibly on his mind. The passionateresentment, the agony of protest that had come to him at the ball, whenhe had received the torn fragments of his letter to Barbara, returned indouble force, opposing a strange, new sense of shame that his thoughtshould follow her even into the tragic shadow where she now dwelt.Yet--for fancy will not be denied--his brain would again and againcircle the same somber treadmill:
_We have done those things which we ought not to have done!_ He seemedto hear her say it on the dark hillside. Her voice had had that in itwhich, against his will, had thrilled him. What had she done that sheregretted? She had spoken of the day in the cave at Enoshima--had seemedto wish him to believe that she had not then been acting a part. Couldanything have happened in that one day's interval so utterly to changeher? She had been unhappy, for he had surprised her weeping. What was itshe had wished to "confess?" So to-night his gloomy reflections ran--totheir submerging wave of self-reproach.
He let himself into the Chancery with his latch-key, to get hisevening's mail. A telegram had been laid on his desk. It was acipher from Washington, and he opened the safe at once and from theinner drawer took out the official code books. He sat down at one ofthe desks and began the decoding of the text. For a time he workedmechanically--as it were, with but one-half of his brain--tracing eachgroup of figures in the bulky volume, transposing by the secret key,dragging, in the complicated process, sense and coherency from themeaningless digits. Then he sat staring at the result:
"Large short selling to-day in European bourses and in New York (comma) unexplainable on usual grounds (comma) is creating anxiety (period) Can scarcely be explained except on hypothesis that secret group of dealers have suddenly come into possession of information which leads them to consider the international situation ominous (period) Newspapers in ignorance of anything extraordinary (period) London and Paris evidently puzzled (period) Has situation developed new phases and in your opinion does it contain possible element of danger (period) Hasten reply."
A full five minutes Daunt sat motionless, revolving the matter in allits bearings. An answer must be sent without delay. A part of thatanswer might be found in the departure of the Squadron. The newspapershad announced its receipt of sailing-orders, but the news had yet to beverified. The Naval Minister could give this verification.
He went at once to the stables, where the carriage was about to startfor the Ambassador. He sprang in. A little later he was at the Admiral'sofficial residence and his chief was perusing the message. After amoment's thought the Ambassador read it aloud.
Daunt had made a move to retire, but the Admiral stopped him.
"Pray don't go yet," he said. "There is something I should like to sayon this matter, and I count on your discretion, Mr. Daunt, as on HisExcellency's. Since the American Government attaches significance tothat peculiar incident, I think no harm can come from an exchange ofopinion. It may help us both." He paused a moment, his foot tapping thefloor.
"The news contained in that telegram," he continued presently, "for thepast two days has caused my Government great concern. Your Excellencywill understand when I say that the particular objects of this attack(if I may so call it) are precisely those securities which would suffermost were Japan's peace or prosperity threatened. There has seemed to bea concurrence in it not purely fortuitous. Back of this selling is nomere opinion--it is too assured for that. Some interest or individualabroad is apparently banking heavily on a belief that Japan is about toenter a period of stress!"
The Ambassador spoke for the first time. "_Abroad?_" he said shrewdly.
The Admiral looked at him an instant without speaking. His expressionchanged swiftly. He rose and went quickly to the telephone in the nextroom.
"He is talking with the Secret Service," said Daunt, in a low tone.
In a few moments their host returned. There was something in his facethat made the Ambassador's keen eye kindle. "The suggestion was mostpertinent," he said. "There is one man in Japan who, exclusive of thecommercial codes, has sent in the past two days cipher telegrams to NewYork, London and Berlin."
He took a short turn about the room in some agitation. "YourExcellency," he said, stopping short, "I make a confident of you. Thatman is Doctor Bersonin."
The Ambassador started.
"Pray absolve me," said the Admiral quickly, "from an apparentindiscretion. Doctor Bersonin is no longer in the Japanese service. Hiscontract expired at noon to-day. It will not be renewed. As one of _my_Government I speak to you, as the representative of _your_ Government,concerning a private individual whose acts are in the purview of usboth. The circumstances are extraordinary, but I think the occasionjustifies this conversation."
He rang a bell sharply and his private secretary entered. "Bring me," hesaid in Japanese, "report number eleven of Lieutenant Ishida Hetaro."
When it was brought, he turned to a leaf underscored scored with red."Your Excellency," he said, "interested me profoundly this evening bythe account of the disappearance of your dog. I am going to ask Mr.Daunt--who reads Japanese so fluently--to give a running translation ofthis."
Daunt took the manuscript--as perfectly executed as an inscription inUncial Greek--and began to read. As he translated, his breath came morequickly, and the Ambassador leaned forward across the table. Yet thewords chronicled nothing more than the curious disappearance from thelaboratory of a tiny song-bird--_and a steel pen-rest_. The close of thenarrative drew an exclamation from the Ambassador's lips. For it told offeathery sprays of reddish-brown powder on the expert's desk, and heseemed to see himself, his study lamp in his hand, bending over curiouswhorls of dust on his own piazza.
"May I a
sk," said the Admiral, "whether the episode of the dog suggestedto Your Excellency the possibility that your caller might himself beable to solve the mystery of the animal's disappearance?"
The Ambassador's reply came slowly, but with deliberate emphasis:
"It did. The more so, from our previous conversation. In my study I havethe model of a Dreadnaught. We were discussing this, and the doctordescribed the fighting machine of the future--an atomic engine whichshould utilize some newly discovered law of molecular action, a machinethat might be carried in a single hand, to which a battle-ship would be,as he expressed it, 'mere silly shreds of steel.' He spoke, I thought,with a strange confidence that seemed almost unbalanced. In connectionwith the conversation, the later incident, I confess, left a deepimpression. Yet the idea it suggested was so incredible that I havenever spoken of it to any one before."
"Suppose," said the Admiral, "that the man we are discussing hasactually constructed such a machine. What possible connection can therebe between that and a confidence in some near event which will lowerJapan's credit in the eyes of the world?"
Before the Ambassador replied there was the sound of voices outside--asudden commotion and a woman's agitated protestations. The secretarycame in hurriedly and whispered to the Admiral. A door slammed in thehall, there was the sound of a short struggle, and a girl burst into theroom. She threw herself at the Admiral's feet, panting broken sentences.Her _kimono_ was torn and muddied, her blue-black hair was loosened, andher face white and pitifully working.
A man had darted after her--he was the Admiral's _aide_. He grasped herarm. "She has been at the Department," he said in English, with a glanceat the visitors. "They detained her there, but she got away. They havetelephoned a warning that she might attempt to see you."
She struggled against him, her eyes sweeping the circle about her with apassionate entreaty. Suddenly she saw the Ambassador. She lifted herface, swollen with crying, to him:
"You--nod know me--Haru?" she faltered, "_ne_? Say so!"
"Haru!" he exclaimed. Then, turning to the Admiral, "I know the child,"he said. "She was companion to one of our house-guests till a week ago,when she disappeared from her home."
His host made an exclamation of pity. "It is _no-byo_, no doubt," hesaid, using the word for the strange Japanese brain-fever which is akinto madness. "She must be cared for at once." He leaned and spokesoothingly to her.
A spasm seized Haru. She tore herself from the _aide's_ grasp and,falling prone, beat her small fists on the floor. "They will none ofthem listen! They will none of them listen!" she screamed, in Japanese."They call it the fever, and they will not hear! And to-morrow it willbe too late!" A peal of hysteric laughter shook her, mixed withstrangling sobs. "Are all the gods with Bersonin-_San_?"
At that name the Admiral's face changed swiftly. "Leave her with me," hesaid, "and wait in the anteroom."
"But, Excellency--"
The other lifted his hand, and the _aide_ withdrew with the secretary.His two callers had risen, but he stayed them. "We have gone far alongthe road of confidence to-night," he said in a low tone. "If you arewilling, we will go to the end."
He bent and drew the girl to a sitting posture.
"Tell us," he said gently, "what brought you here."
The Kingdom of Slender Swords Page 50